I dislike controversy. I’m drawn to controversy. In between my two realities lies the author of young adult fiction. While the conscious side of me never wants to piss off the literary influencers by writing something they’d deem censor-worthy, when I’m writing (my unconscious side) I’m not thinking about anyone except the characters at hand. That [ Read the full article… ]
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28 & Beyond: The Divine Series
Known for her Christian fiction titles written for adults, it was a delight last year to encounter Jacquelin Thomas’ debut YA title Simply Divine which is the first title in a series of books about fifteen year old Divine Matthews-Hardison. After turmoil erupts with her parents, she is forced to go live with a family [ Read the full article… ]
Never underestimate a genius
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km5vbhrKJ8E] This past weekend, I purchased a copy of Kadir Nelson‘s picture book, We Are The Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. I planned to read it and post a review here today. But I can’t. Not enough time. We Are The Ship is a high quality read, not a gratuitous tribute to a [ Read the full article… ]
28 & Beyond: It Chicks
The wild popularity of the Gossip Girl series has resulted in a strange and often contentious divide among those looking for good books for young adult readers and those who read them, regularly. On one side, you have some influencers who absolutely cannot understand the appeal of a book where girls are catty, fashion rules and [ Read the full article… ]
Where I am
Just in case you’re wondering, The Brown Bookshelf is not on hiatus. We’re recovering. The 28 Days Later campaign was a lot of fun, but it was a lot of work, too. In little over a month, we corresponded with 32 authors and illustrators, their agents, editors and publicists. I even spoke with one guy’s [ Read the full article… ]
Thank You For Brown Bookshelving!
What a month it’s been. What started out as a simple exercise in shelf awareness has grown into a full-fledged mission to bring authors and readers of all backgrounds, ethnicities and races together to celebrate books, the authors who write them and the illustrators who make them beautiful. The support from visitors to our site, [ Read the full article… ]
Looking ahead to Friday!
I just wanted to take a second to let everyone know how excited we are about our 28 Days Later initiative, which premiers on Friday. The past couple of months have been a growing experience for me. Many of the authors we plan to profile here, I’d never even heard of until we began this [ Read the full article… ]
Heads Up Vol IV
Heads Up is a reposting of AACBWI’s announcement of book releases that may picque the interest of young African American readers. As a Brown Bookshelf partner, The African American Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators society is dedicated to spreading the word about these and other books that are of special interest to multi-cultural audiences. From Board Books [ Read the full article… ]